ioo SYNTAX
(wrong coordination of an independent sentence with a
defining relative clause).
It is not easy to see why the relative more than other words
should be mishandled in this way; few would write (but see
p. 61, s. f.) 'This league we kept and has proved advantageous'.
The condensed antecedent-relative 'what1 is only an ap-
parent exception to this universal rule. In the sentence
* What I hold is mine7, 'what* is only object to 'hold', not
subject to 'is'; the subject to 'is1 is the whole noun-clause
c what I hold *. Sentences of this type, so far from being
exceptions, often give a double illustration of the rule, and
leave a double possibility of error. For just as a single
'what1 cannot stand in different relations to two coordinate
verbs in its clause, so a single noun-clause cannot stand in
different relations to two coordinate main 'verbs. We can
say ' What I have and hold ', where ' what' is object to both
verbs, and ' what is mine and has been fairly earned by me',
where it is subject to both; but we cannot say ' what I have
and has been fairly earned by me'. Similarly, we can say
4What I have is mine and shall remain mine', where the
noun-clause 'what I have: is subject to both verbs, and
* What I have I mean to keep, and will surrender to no man',
where it is object to both; but not * What I have is mine,
and I will surrender to no man', Of the various ways of
avoiding this error (subordination, adaptation of verbs,
insertion of a pronoun, relative or otherwise), that chosen
by Miss Bronte below is perhaps the least convenient. Her
sentence is, however, correct; that from the Spectator is not.
Not mere empty ideas, but what were once realities, and that I long-
have thought decayed.—C. BRONTE.
Whatever we possessed in 1867 the British Empire possesses now, and
is part of the Dominion of Canada.—Spectator.
1 Things that were once realities, and that I long have thought
decayed'; a pair of defining clauses.
The condensed 'what' must of course be distinguished
from the *what* of indirect questions, which is not i-elative